Friday, September 18, 2009

 
"Upadesa Saram was written by Sri Bhagavan Ramana not only in His native Tamil, but also in Sanskrit, Telugu and Malayalam— so important did He consider this ‘Essential Teaching’.
Though He had made no study of Sanskrit grammar, His spontaneous composition in the lilting supratistha metre of that classical language so impressed the great Sanskritist, Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni, that he promptly wrote a revealing commentary upon it."
[Ref: SRI MAHARSHI’S WAY - A Translation and Commentary on Upadesa Saram
by D.M. Sastri; (1999) SRI RAMANASRAMAM, Tiruvannamalai]

In Sanskrit (and many other languages), meter is determined by the pattern of long and short syllables. There are dozens of meters; some are determined by the number of syllables in a line, and some by the total length of the syllables in a line.
Names of meters and numbers of syllables: ukta - 1; atyukta 2; madhya 3; pratistha 4; supratistha 5; gayatri 6; usnik 7; anustubh 8; brhati 9; pankti 10; tristubh 11
[Ref: Math for Poets and Drummers]
SuprathisthA is a metre of twenty syllables.
posted by Sastry Rama 4:53 PM